LAB 2 WRITE-UP

Thermal Cycler Engineering

Our re-design is based upon the Open PCR system originally designed by Josh Perfetto and Tito Jankowski.

System Design The Heat Sink Fan moves air across the metal sheets to cool down the PCR machine and the samples. The Heat Sink removes heat from the PCR machine to cool down the samples. It does this by conducting heat down to the metal sheets that are located beside the heat sink fan.

Key Features For the Heat Sink Fan, we want to add a second fan to the PCR machine. The reason for adding an addtional fan would be cool the heat sink down more rapidly. We also want to change the heat sink in general by add more surface area to the metal sheets in the center. We would increase the number of sheets vertically. We would add sheets horizontally, reducing space between sheets, to increase the surface area even more.

Instructions The instructions for assembly would not change. To add the second fan we would have to expand the exterior walls to make room for it. This would make the machine slightly larger, but not change its compact, portable size.